During use of a standard view camera, an image to be recorded is composed and focused upon a ground glass plate positioned proximate to the back of the camera. Once the image has been composed and focused, the standard view camera is designed to receive a universal film holder which includes photographic film. The universal film holder is inserted into a film cartridge slot which becomes accessible by the manual retraction of the ground glass plate against a spring force which in turn opens the film cartridge slot for receipt of the universal film holder and for placement of the photographic film into the focal plane for the camera. The spring force then holds the universal film holder in place within the camera. The dark slide of the universal film holder may then be withdrawn for exposure and recording of the image upon the photograph film.
Standard view cameras are generally limited to the recording of images on photographic film. The ground glass plate of the standard view camera functions to provide the focal plane on which the image is to be recorded. In the past, the structural modification of a standard view camera, including the removal of the ground glass plate, has been required in order to digitally record an image. The modification and incorporation of digitized image recording apparatus into a standard view camera frequently causes the camera to become unfocused. The known digital image recording apparatus are inflexible and fail to provide a photographer with the normal ability to refocus, or to recompose an image to be recorded. In addition, the known digitized image recording apparatus to be incorporated into a standard view camera were frequently attached in an incorrect focal plane. The failure to position the digital image recording apparatus within the correct focal plane frequently resulted in the recording of an unfocused image.
In the past, the digital image recording apparatus were generally formed of two types. The first type included arrays of solid state silicon photosensor pixels which converted surface light into electrical signals. The first type of digital image recording apparatus were generally used within cameras designed specifically for recording digital images. These cameras incorporated specific lenses and functioned in a manner similar to a video camera. The second type of digital recording apparatus involved devices to be attached to existing cameras so that existing camera bodies and lenses were available for use. These devices in general were quite large and cumbersome and were frequently incorporated into very large enclosures or boxes which were designed to be fastened in substitution for the back of a camera. Additionally, the second type of device incorporated scanning units which traversed the focal plane of an image. The scanning devices were frequently required to repeatedly traverse the focal plane of an image in a row by row pattern which was quite time consuming.
None of the known digital image recording apparatus incorporate an array of photosensing elements into a universal housing designed to be inserted into the cartridge film slot of a non-modified standard view camera. The digital image recording apparatus as known do not substitute a plurality of photosensor image resolution pixels in the identical focal plane for a standard view camera during the digital recording of an image.